Interview: The running man

John Keston was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a voice teacher at Minnesota’s Bemidji State University. After starting running at 55, he dominated his age groups for more than a decade and set many age records. He once set three world records – 10,000 metres, 3000 metres and the mile – in a single meeting. In 2001, in his mid-70s, he was inducted into the USA Track & Field Masters Hall of Fame. He is a US citizen but was born in the UK

Have you always been a runner?

I was active as a child, but not an athlete. I grew up in London. My family didn’t have a car, so I would run two miles to school, then run home for lunch and back to school. At the start of the second world war, when I was 15, I worked in a factory that ...

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